Gathering the Outcast

Q: What does the Bible say about God's gathering of the outcast?

Isaiah 56:8 reveals that God gathers the outcast, demonstrating His sovereign grace in restoring His elect to Himself through Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 56:8, we see a clear depiction of God's commitment to gather the outcast of Israel, which points to a larger theological reality—the gathering of God's elect from all nations. The passage highlights God's sovereign power in orchestrating salvation for those who are scattered or forsaken. Just as God restored the Jews from Babylonian captivity, He also promises to gather the outcasts of His spiritual Israel, emphasizing that this act of gathering is rooted in His grace and purpose. This pattern of gathering is a reflection of God's salvation through Jesus Christ, illustrating that He reconciles sinners to Himself despite their lost state.

Q: How do we know that God's gathering of His elect is true?

God's gathering of His elect is assured through His sovereign promises and the unfolding of redemptive history that culminates in Christ. The certainty of God's gathering of His elect is grounded in the unchangeable promises of Scripture and the demonstration of His sovereign will throughout history. As evident in zealous prophecies like Isaiah 56:8 and the fulfillment of God's plan through Jesus Christ, we are assured that God's purpose in gathering the outcast is unwavering. God utilizes all circumstances, including the actions of rulers and events throughout history, to gather His people to Himself. The fullness of this gathering reflects the Father's will, the Son's redemptive work, and the Holy Spirit's effective calling, providing a robust foundation for our faith in God's promise to gather His elect.

Q: Why is God's gathering of the outcast important for Christians?

God's gathering of the outcast is crucial as it highlights His sovereign grace and the assurance of salvation for all believers. The gathering of the outcast is vital for Christians as it underscores the core principle of sovereign grace in salvation. This doctrine reassures believers that their faith is not solely based on their merit, but on God's unmerited favor. In practical terms, understanding that we are part of God's gathering fosters humility and unity among believers, as we recognize that we are all outcasts brought together by Christ. Additionally, embracing this truth compels believers to share the Gospel, as the promise of gathering extends to all people, encouraging us to proclaim the good news of salvation regardless of one's past or background. Hence, God's gathering is not only a theological concept but an imperative that shapes our identity, mission, and relationships within the body of Christ.

Q: What does it mean that God is both the gatherer and the gathered?

God serves as the gatherer by His sovereign plan, and believers are the gathered, drawn to Christ through His grace. The dual role of God as both the gatherer and the gathered exemplifies the intricacy of divine sovereignty and the nature of salvation. God, as the gatherer, orchestrates the gathering of His elect according to His eternal purpose, as revealed through Scriptures. The gathered, or the elect, are those whom God has chosen to bring into a relationship with Himself, effectively demonstrating His grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This means that the effectiveness of gathering lies entirely in God's initiative rather than human effort. Ultimately, this relationship manifests the unity of the Trinity—God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—actively working in concert to accomplish the salvation of His people, assuring us of our place in His eternal plan.

Isaiah chapter 56. Mrs. Coleman, it's a real delight to have you and your daughter and grandchildren here with us today. Isaiah 56, verse 8. The Lord God which gathereth The outcast of Israel saith, yet will I gather others to him beside those that are gathered unto him.

Now, without question, there is in this passage an allusion to God's gathering of the Jews back into their land after the Babylonian captivity. The Jews were frequently carried into captivity. Tyrant after tyrant throughout their history invaded their land and took away captives, first to one place and then to another. And certainly in this part of Isaiah's prophecy, he is talking about that time when the Jews had been carried away into Babylon and how that God would gather his people out of Babylon into his own land once again. Marvelous and great indeed were the deliverances of Israel out of their various forms of captivity.

God sovereignly used even pagan kings like Cyrus, who knew him not. Now you stop and think about this. Cyrus was a king who had no knowledge of the living God. And God Almighty said, he called Silas by name at least 300 years before Silas was ever born. And he said, I'm going to use him to deliver you. God sovereignly used kings who knew him not, in the infinite wisdom of his providence, graciously, sovereignly forcing those kings, though they knew it not, to do exactly what he purposed to be done from eternity. He used them to bring his children out of bondage into liberty.

Now certainly, then, there is an allusion to this deliverance of Israel out of Babylon into Israel once again. But I didn't come here today to give you a lecture on the troubles and the trials of the ancient Jews. I'll let other folks worry about that. But that's not the message of Isaiah 56a. there is just an allusion to it.

You see, the troubles of Israel, the captivities and bondages of Israel, and the deliverances of Israel, their restorations time and again throughout their history, were no more and no less than types and pictures of redemption, deliverance, and salvation.

The redemption, deliverance, and salvation of God's elect, the Israel of God, out of their bondage under sin, and Satan, the dominion of death, and the curse of the law. They were pictures of how God would, by Jesus Christ, deliver us unto himself at last. He who delivered Israel out of Babylon can easily bring his people out of sin. He who calls the tyrant to release his grasp over the children of Israel can easily cause Satan to turn loose of those who are well-captured by him.

The Lord God Almighty who delivered his people out from under their various troubles and led them in a way that they knew not, back to the land of blessedness. can easily, graciously lead lost sinners through the intricate mazes of his divine providence to Christ the Savior. So our text this morning is talking about God's gracious, effectual gathering of his elect to the Lord Jesus Christ in saving grace, and declares that it is a matter of absolute certainty. What's God doing? How do you understand history? How do you understand the events of any given day? How do you understand all the topsy-turvy affairs of this world? How do you understand the difficulties and trials that many women endure? God Almighty declared before the world was that he would gather his elect to Christ the Lord, and that's what he's doing. That's what he's doing. in all the affairs of providence and in all the affairs of grace.

Now, I want this morning to show you three things from this text of scripture and talk about each of them just briefly. First, we'll talk about the gatherer. He's the Lord God himself. And then we'll talk about the gathered, those whom God has purposed to gather to Christ. And then we'll talk about the gathering for just a minute. First, let me talk to you about the gatherer. The gatherer spoken of in this text is the Lord God himself. Now hear this and rejoice. Gathering is God's business. Gathering is God's work. It is not up to you. It is not up to me. It is not up to the ingenuity, power, and skill of the church, the preacher, or the imaginary soul winner, to gather sinners to Christ. That's God's work.

He uses such instruments as we are. Like a gardener will use a hole to tend his garden and to care for his garden, but the hole doesn't do the work. The gardener is the one that does it. Even so, God uses such things as we are, but the gathering is his work. Now, before there was any gathering, there was a time when God's work was scattering. Listen carefully to the scriptures. After the fall of our father Adam, do you remember what God did?

In Genesis chapter 2, he drove Adam and Eve out of the garden. He set up a flaming sword to keep the way to the tree of life. He drove them out from his presence because of their sin. And thus, in judgment, God began to scatter his people, his elect, through the sea of Adam, out among the peoples of the world.

He scattered them and drove them away from himself. after the flood, when God delivered Noah and his family through the flood and through the power and deliverance and grace of his arm, bringing them into the ark and bringing them safe through the flood of his wrath. You remember that Noah became drunk and one of his sons, Ham, uncovered his father's nakedness and God scattered the people again. If you read Genesis chapter 9, you'll see that God scattered all the race of Adam, these sons of Noah, into three general categories, three general tribes, families, or races. The Shemites are the Jews, the Jephthites are the Gentiles, the Hamites are the Canaanites, or the black, the Negro race. And God scattered them into the various corners of the earth in his judgment.

And then in Genesis chapter 11, the sons of men all speaking one language decided to build a tower, a great tower, the Tower of Babel. Now the object, sometimes when you're growing up, you probably saw some pictures of the Tower of Babel, some Sunday school teacher showing you a picture of a huge, tall, tall tower by which men have to climb up to heaven physically. Don't be fooled.

The object of the Tower of Babel was that men hoped to build and establish a place of unity, power, dominion, and worship. A tower, a tower that would be the center of the universe by which men hoped to save the human race from destruction. Fellows have been building those towers ever since. by which they hope to save the human race. We're going to keep the human race from destroying itself." And God said, no you're not. And God in his infinite wisdom followed the plans of man. He followed the plans of finite worms. And he did it with this much ease. He just gave him different languages. Just like that.

Or that or just somehow not jive with all that you learn about sociology, will you? But you mean the languages of the world were developed over a period of ages, don't you? No, no. At one time, God in judgment came down and confused the tongues of men, and God scattered the nations. so they inhabit the earth in various ways, and not understanding one another, they are in utter chaos, jealousy, and constantly live at enmity one against the other, because God has scattered the nations. Now this time of scattering was God's work. It was God's work. I want you to understand this. The scattering was just as much God's doing as is the gathering.

Turn to Jeremiah chapter 30. Jeremiah chapter 30. In verse 11. The Lord God says, Back in verse 10, Therefore fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, neither be dismayed, O Israel, for lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity.

And Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. Though I make a full end of all nations, look at it now, whither I have scattered thee. Do you see that? God did the scattering. Look in Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 11. The Lord God speaks in much the same way. Ezekiel 11 and verse 16.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary." He says, I cast them off, I scattered them into the far countries. You see, God scattered his elect throughout all the earth in judgment, but he scattered them with the intention, with the design, and with the purpose of gathering them in everlasting salvation to Jesus Christ the Lord.

Now, let's look at that gathering. This gospel age is what is spoken of in the scriptures as the time of gathering. In this present age, God's gathering together in one, even in Christ Jesus, the children of God which have been scattered abroad throughout all the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world, who lived as our representative and brought in an everlasting righteousness, who, dying as our substitute, obtained eternal redemption for us, is risen again, ascended up into heaven, and is exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high, and there the God-man sits in glory, gathering his elect, gathering them from the four corners of the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is that one of whom God speaks and says, unto him shall the gathering of the people be. I will gather them unto me and they shall see my glory, God says. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now Christ is the only true melting pot for the races of fallen mankind. How can I stress this sufficiently and say it properly. God divided the races back in Genesis chapter 9 and God divided the races again in Genesis chapter 11. And men and women by nature move in enmity against one another, in jealousy, in pity, quarrels, and spats, and wars constantly throughout the ages of mankind because men are scattered in diversity under the judgment of God because of their sin and their pride and arrogance. And men keep trying to gather them together. They get, by social programs and by education and by silly nonsense, they keep trying to get them together.

I was watching some program, I forgot what it was the other night, I just had the TV on while I was reading the paper and noticed out in California, oh, they're going to be airing it this week on PBS. They've been following the school out there. They had decided that it's no longer good to divide the classes up between the The smart ones, and the slower ones, and the real slow ones, but let's mix them all together, because after all, we don't want any kind of prejudice, or any kind of social stigma, or any of that kind of nonsense.

We're going to get them all on equal ground. We're going to get them all together. It ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen, because God's scattered the nations. And that's just a small, small touch of it. Well, where can men come together? Is there no hope of peace with mankind? Oh, yeah. Oh yes, in Jesus Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, male nor female. In Christ they're gathered together and melted into one. Melted into one.

When I was up in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania recently I was talking to a young black lady, I presume to be about 30 years old, from Miami, Florida. We were just chatting a little bit. And I said to her, somehow this came up in the conversation, I said, I hope you're not fool enough and I'm not fool enough to presume we have no prejudices. Folks say, I don't see any color. You're lying through your teeth. You do see color. Sure you do.

We do have our prejudices, but believers recognize the evil of their prejudices. Believers recognize the evil of pride and arrogancy and haughtiness. And as believers, we live together in the kingdom of God. We don't cease to be men or women, cease to be black or white, cease to be Jew or Gentile, cease to be learned or unlearned. But in Christ, it doesn't matter. There's no significance to it. In Christ, we're gathered together as one. God, by the blood of Jesus Christ, has broken down the middle wall of partition that separates the races, and he gathers us together again.

Now, God is gathering his people every day, and he will do it until the end of time. The gatherer is God himself in the three persons of the Holy Trinity. We are gathered together by God the Father whose purpose and plan it was to gather all his elect in Christ. He promised it. He gave Jesus Christ to be the ensign under whom the gathering of the people should be. Sinners are said to be gathered also by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at a couple of scriptures. Let's look at Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 10. Zechariah 10 in verse 8. I particularly like this reference. I read it several times preparing this message. But in Zechariah 10 verse 8, the Lord God says, I will hiss for them. I will hiss for them and gather them for I have redeemed them. You see that? I will hiss for them. And I'll gather them. And this is the certainty of it! I'll redeem them!

The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 2 and verse 16, Other sheep I have, which are not of this foe, them also I must bring, and there will be one foe and one shepherd. God the Savior, the Son of God, I redeem her as the shivite, pledged himself to look up and bring home all the chosen. the good shepherd gathers the lambs in his arm and carries them home to glory. I say he seeks and saves that which was lost. Having redeemed his people, he consequently gathers his redeemed ones by his spirit, by his grace, through the ministry of the word. And God the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace by the irresistible power of his effectual call, gathers chosen sinners to Christ Jesus.

Are you still there, Zechariah? Look at chapter 12. Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. God says, I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. That is, I will pour out my spirit upon them, and he shall be to them a spirit of grace, causing them to look to me, causing them to call on the name of the Lord of grace and supplications. And they shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

That's the gatherer, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Secondly, let me show you something about the gathered. Our text here in Isaiah 56 in verse 8 describes those who are gathered in three ways. Look at it. They are called the outcasts of Israel, they are called others, and they are called those that are gathered.

The fact is, the whole human race has been divided by God from everlasting into two categories. The whole human race, this room right here, is divided by God into two categories. It's true of all men, it's true of all families, it's true of all societies, it's true of the whole world. Those two categories are so fixed unalterably by God, that as the Scriptures speak of that great gulf fixed between the damned and the saved, so there is a great gulf fixed between these two categories of people, so that no one shall ever by any possibility cross from one to the other.

The two categories are set. Set by divine predestination. Now, they are variously described in the Scriptures. You listen carefully to me. This is how God describes them in his word. The Israel of God, a holy nation and the nations of the world. The church and the world. The elect and the reclimate. Vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. Sheep and goats. Now, nothing on this earth that you do will ever change a sheep into a goat. or change a goat into a sheep. And God's sheep will never become goats, and goats will never become sheep.

Those things are just facts. Somebody says, well, I don't like that. Take it up with God. I'm just telling you what he says. God has divided the nations of the world, the peoples of the world, the families of the world, into those two groups. Those who are his and those who are not. by his own choice. Now in our text, the elect are described as the outcast of Israel. Not the outcast of literal Israel, but of spiritual Israel. The church and the family of God. And the outcast of Israel are here divided into two groups.

Those who are gathered unto him. That is, all the elect who have already been saved by God's grace, and the others. The others are those who yet must be saved. All the elect who have not yet been called by God's grace. Now, I want you to take special notice of the way in which the elect are here described. First, they're called the outcast. The outcast. God's elect are always the outcasts of the earth.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 1, will you? 1 Corinthians 1. Everything in the kingdom of God is just exactly backwards of the way it is in the world. Everything, everything. In the world, men teach their sons and daughters to stand tall and walk proud because you are somebody. And here I come every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Tuesday, and I'm trying to tell you you're nobody and nothing. And until you recognize you're nobody and nothing, you'll never amount to anything.

You'll never come to Christ. You'll never trust Him. You'll never believe Him. You'll never look to Him until you realize that you can do nothing by which to merit God's favor, nothing by which to lay hold of God, nothing by which to win God's mercy. Until you see your nothing, Bible, you'll never seek Him. You'll never seek Him.

Look here in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren, the word calling here simply refers to God's election. Some are called effectually and some are not. Here he's talking about those who are called effectually. You see your calling, brethren, have it not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. to confound the wise, God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence."

And for Ron, I recall, One of the first days I spent in Bible College out in Springfield, Missouri, one of our theology professors got in class. We were in one of the doctrine classes, and he looked out over a crowd of about 300 or 400 aspiring young preachers, and he told the story about Samson and the Philistines and how that Samson, with the jawbone of an ass, slew a thousand Philistines. And he told it real good. He said, imagine that, God used the jawbone of an ass to slay a thousand Philistines.

And then he looked at us. And he said, come to think of it, he still uses them. And most of us got his point. Most of us understood God uses nothings and nobodies. Nothings and nobodies. So that no flesh should glory in his presence. God takes such things as he finds in the dung heap of fallen humanity, worthless in themselves and worthless in the eyes of men, and makes them the trophies of his grace and the instruments of his mercy for the calling together of his elects.

When Samuel came to anoint a king in Israel, he came to the house of Jesse, and he said, Buddy, God sent me down here to anoint one of your boys, and he's going to be king. And Jesse said, I know exactly which one he is. And he went out and got the biggest, the strongest, the tallest, the best looking, sharpest, smartest. He brought him in there, and Samuel said, nope, that's not him. And he went and got another one, and Samuel said, nope, that's not him. And he went and got all the rest of them, brought them one by one. Samuel said, no, that's it. What's going on? Jesse, don't you have another son? Yeah, but he's nothing. He's nobody! He's out there tending the sheep. He's just a little old runt. He's just a renegade fellow. Nobody ever used him. Samuel said, go get him. And when David walked in the door, God said, arise and anoint him, for this is he.

That's who God's elect are. God takes the outcast and makes them his own. In their natural estate, God's elect are outcast children of wrath. even as others. They're so described in Ephesians 2. Before he saved us, we were far off from God, alienated from him, without God, without Christ, without hope, destitute of his spirit, like lost sheep, wandering as far away from God, strangers to his people, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Though chosen of God and redeemed by Christ, until they are called by the Holy Spirit, God's elect, appear to be the outcast, without one claim upon his mercy, without one claim upon his love, without one claim upon his grace in Christ. Like that infant that Ezekiel describes, cast out from the mother's womb, despised, discarded, left alone.

If you could have viewed the life of this man who's preaching to you for the first 16 years of his life, you'd have looked at him and you'd have said, shit, if there's anybody in this world headed to hell, it's him. If there's anybody in this world that will never turn their face towards Zion. It's Him. If there's anybody in this world that will wind up forever cast off by God, his name is Don Fortner!

Because to all outward appearance, Larry, it looked like I was cast off, not to be gathered. And when chosen sinners are convinced of their sin by God the Holy Spirit, They look upon themselves as outcasts. That publican came into the temple, and he wouldn't look up toward heaven. He stood in the back, because he knew he was an outcast.

And as an outcast, he cried, God be merciful to me, the sinner. That Canaanite woman came to the Lord Jesus And she said, Lord have mercy on me, my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. And the Lord said, you're an outcast. She said, I know that, but you can have mercy on me.

But it's not fit to take a children's bed and give it to dogs. Lord, I know I'm a dog, an outcast, Gentile dog, but even dogs get the crumbs from the master's table. And the Lord said, I'll take you. I'll take you. That prodigal son, who wasted his father's substance with riotous living, went his way, spent his livelihood and wasted his life until he was absolutely destitute and ruined. And when he came to himself, he said, I know I'm an outcast, but there's some hired servants in my father's house who have bread enough for to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will go as an outcast to my father. and say, Father, make me one of your hired servants. And when he did, buddy, the father received him as a son.

The outcasts are those whom he gathers. And once they're gathered, the people of God in this world are looked upon by the world as outcasts, worthless people. In Jeremiah 40, verse 17, We read how the nations of the world look at you and say, outcast. Outcast, that's your name. Outcast. Outcast.

When our Lord walked on this earth, he was an outcast. When his apostles walked through this world, they were outcast. And I'm gonna tell you something. If we follow their steps, we too will be outcast. Outcast not because we act funny. Outcast not because we're mean or haughty or self-righteous or proud. Those things we ought to be outcast for.

But outcast because we declare to men, you're absolute sinners. before a holy God, and the only way on this earth you can ever be accepted with God is to give up your good works, cast them off as filthy rags, and trust Jesus Christ, the Son of God, outcast.

Now, the whole world knows better than that. The whole world knows that you work your way to heaven. The whole world knows man's got to do something by which to attain God's favor. Now, I'm going to tell you something. When the Church of God craves the applause and the approval of the world, the Church of God behaves as fools. The only way we can ever gain the world's approval, the only way we can ever gain the world's applause, is to have God's frown and God's disapproval. Let the world count me outcast. That's all right, I'm beginning to get used to it. And frankly, I don't much care. I just don't much care as long as God counts me gathered. That's all that matters. That's all that really matters.

Now lastly, the gatherer is God himself. The gathered are God's elect. And now let's look at the gathering. The Lord God says, yet will I gather others unto him beside those that are gathered. I wonder if there are any of those others here today. I'm looking for the others. I'm looking for the others. I preached a sermon to you one time years ago on seeking the Lord's sheep. That's what I'm doing, seeking the Lord's sheep. I'm concerned about the Lord's sheep. I'm concerned about God's elect. I'm looking for the others, and God has determined together.

They are the other sheep who have not yet been called. They are the many who were ordained to eternal life, but have not yet believed the gospel. They are the rest of God's elect, of whom Paul speaks when he says, and so all Israel shall be saved. Now, here is an unconditional promise of grace.

God says, yet will I gather others unto him. I don't need to pause and tell you that the one to whom God gathers his elect is Jesus Christ, the Lord God. Leave him alone. God gathers his people to him in faith. God gathers his people to him as Lord and Savior, Redeemer, Master. God gathers his people to Christ, only to Christ.

Not to me, not to another man, not to the Pope in Rome, not to the Church, not to a religious organization, but to Christ! And that's salvation. He's the incense under whom the gathering of the people shall be. This promise is given to us in unconditional terms. God says, I will gather. Hmm. You sure? You sure God will gather them? Absolutely.

Because his purpose cannot fail. The blood of Christ will not be shed in vain. The Son of God will not pay for people who cannot be saved. The power of God's Spirit and the power of His grace cannot be resisted. The covenant of God's grace cannot fall to the ground. This promise is an absolute, unconditional promise of grace. This promise, however, is as wide as the diverse races, nations, and families of the earth.

God says, I'll gather others. Others. learned and other unlearned, other male, other female, other black and other white, other rich and other poor, I'll gather others unto Him. This is a graciously encouraging promise. For if God says I'll gather others, why not me?

I sure fall into that category, others, outcasts, I fall into that category. It's a promise that is perpetual as time, for this promise is the preservative of the world. Hold your hands here in Isaiah 56 and turn to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. If I had a dollar for every time some babbling Arminian spewed out 2 Peter 3 9 at me over the years, I'd be fairly wealthy fellow. because they don't understand what 2 Peter 3, 9 is all about.

They quote part of it. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, and is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Well, read the whole verse. At least be honest enough to read the whole verse. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. Where is it? I will gather others to him. of the sheep I have, them also I must bread. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but as longsuffering, underscore the next two words, to usward, to usward.

You see, God's long-suffering is not to the reprobate. God's long-suffering is not to the goats. God's long-suffering is not to the peoples of the world. God's long-suffering is to us-ward, the outcast, whom is determined to gather the elect multitude, given his son before the world began.

His long-suffering to us-ward. We know that's what he's talking about because in verse 15, Peter says, account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. If God's long-suffering toward you, God's gonna save you. His long-suffering's to usward. All right, read on, verse 9. Not willing that any, any who, any of us, any of the outcasts whom he promised to save, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Frequently, you hear preachers make foolish statements. Sometimes you get to preach big and say things they don't really mean. You know, say things like, well, if God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, he can't let this world go on. If God sent the flood in Nebuchadnezzar's day, he can't let this thing go on much longer.

I'll tell you exactly how long he's going to let this go on. I'll tell you exactly how long I'm going to leave men in this world, exactly how long the sun's going to shine, exactly how long the earth is going to stand, exactly how long it will be until the end of time comes, when God has saved the last one of these outcasts and He said, I'll gather them unto Him. he will bring judgment upon the earth. Just as when God took Lot out of Sodom, then he put the fire in a raft within Sodom, so when God has given out the last of his elect, he will pour out his judgment upon this earth. How is God now gathering these other chosen redeemed sinners to Christ?

Let me give you something to read this week. Go home and read Psalm 107. Read it one more time. Take time to read the whole psalm and understand this, in all the affairs of providence, in everything, in everything, God's gathering his light, everything. Oh, God teach me to understand that. Our friend Becky Coffey, God gave her cancer.

I know somebody says, well, Satan did that. If Satan did it, go worship the devil. He's the one in control. I'm gonna worship whoever's in control. No, God gave her cancer. God gave her cancer. He may have used Satan to bring it, but God gave her cancer. Why on this earth would God take one whom he loves and send her through such an ordeal, her and her children, her family? Why would God do that? I can't explain all the details. I can explain this much. God's gathering his elect.

Oh, maybe Becky or Bob or one of the kids or Henry or somebody will leave a track laying down or bulletin article. Some orderly or some janitor or some goat head passing through one of the rooms in the hospital, just pick it up, look at it, tuck it away and forget it.

And down the road, a year from now, 10 years from now, Would you believe I ran across a piece of paper with some notes on it yesterday I hadn't looked at in 10 years? Didn't even know I had it, but I remembered the notes. Just that same person. Where'd that come from? Oh, I remember. That girl over there in Lexington, Kentucky was taking radium treatments. Her husband gave me that.

That's the Savior I need. What's God doing? He's gathering the outcast of Israel. That's what he's doing. So I say, let him do what he will. Let him do what he will. Young man, like the prodigal son, takes his merry way. runs off from every symbol of authority, cast away every restraint, every fabric of morality, every shred of decency, and he says, I will be my master! I'll do what I will, and to hell with everybody else. But God said he's one of the outcasts of history. And God says, go on.

Go on. Have it your way. I'll have my way. Go ahead. And he gives him the reins. And that young man finds himself wallowing in the muck and mire, the pig pens of this earth. And he comes to himself. because God's gathering the outcast of Israel. He scatters that he may gather. He scatters in wrath that he may gather in Mersin. He gathers the outcast of Israel.

You parents, listen to another father who has some understanding of what God does in his grace. Believing God, now listen to me. Believing God, we commit our sons and daughters into God's hands. Lindsay, it's right for God to do with ours whatever he will. There he is. Let him do what he will. Let him do what he will. That being the case, let us believe God. to have mercy.

When he will, in the place he will, in the time he will, if they're gods, they won't get away. They won't get away. I found out I could run away from mom and dad, and I could run away from authority, I could run away from the law, but I couldn't run away from God. And you can't either. Won't happen. God gathers the outcast of Israel by the irresistible power of his sovereign grace.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." He said, I'll hiss for them. Hiss for them. The effectual call of grace to the one who hears the call is at first kind of like a hissing. You ever been in a crowd and somebody, you hear, and you're like, who's calling me? I know they're talking to me. I recognize them. But I don't know who it is. Where are you? And when God, the Holy Spirit calls, he hisses for you, for you. And when he calls, you'll hear his voice. You'll come to him. By graciously calling his saints up to glory, the Lord gathers the outcast of Israel.

David's dad has been, for several years now, suffering horribly. Alzheimer's disease, what a horrible, horrible disease for a man to suffer. His family's been watching him die a little at a time, every day for years. Until David and I, last time we talked about it, this last week, week before, said, boy, be a blessing when God takes him. Be a blessing when God takes him. Not that anybody's tired of him being around. Love him dearly. But he's had the best of everything here, and there's a whole lot better for him. And God took him Thursday morning. How come? How come?

Because the Lord Jesus said, Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And then one of these days, in the end of time, the Lord Jesus is coming again, and there's going to be a gathering.

Paul speaks of it as our gathering together unto the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 2.1, or 2 Thessalonians 2.1. When the Lord Jesus comes again, with the trump of God, the dead in Christ will rise. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, God will fulfill his word. He will gather the outcast of Israel unto him. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now it's my prayer that you may be in that number in that day. Amen.

Gathering the Outcast

What does the Bible say about God's gathering of the outcast?

How do we know that God's gathering of His elect is true?

Why is God's gathering of the outcast important for Christians?

What does it mean that God is both the gatherer and the gathered?

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Gathering the Outcast

What does the Bible say about God's gathering of the outcast?

How do we know that God's gathering of His elect is true?

Why is God's gathering of the outcast important for Christians?

What does it mean that God is both the gatherer and the gathered?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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